John Hoffman, the 1714 immigrant, must have kept his first baptismal records in something besides the Bible which he inherited, presumably, after his father died in 1731. In 1721, John married Anna Catherine Haeger who was also Reformed. Their first four live births had only one witness to each baptism, as was often the custom with the Reformed people. Also, these four sponsors were different. They tended not to repeat. Also, a mixture of relatives and friends were used.
In his second family, his wife was Lutheran where the baptismal practices were slightly different. They had multiple sponsors or witnesses, who were usually relatives and who might be used several times. [But this was not universally the case; in many instances in Germany the sponsors were never relatives.] Though the children (twelve) were baptized in accordance with some of the general practices of the Lutherans, they were never confirmed as Lutherans. They regarded themselves as Reformed.
Apparently, as long as she lived, the mother of his wife, Maria Sabina Volck (Folg), was a sponsor. John Hoffman never tells us who the mother was except that she was his wife’s mother. We now know that she was the wife of George Utz and that her maiden name was Anna Barbara Majer (Maier). Earlier, she had married John Michael Volck of Wagenbach.
Under the assumption that the sponsors were related by blood or marriage, we have several problems. Nicholas Yager and/or his wives were sponsors on twelve occasions. The Yager history must be regarded as incomplete until this relationship is understood. For all twelve children, Baltz Blankenbaker (Blankenbuechler) and/or his wife (name not given in the record) were sponsors. This latter case would be easily understood if Baltz had married the sister of Maria Sabina’s mother. Circumstantial evidence that this might be the case was that George Utz and Balthasar Blankenbaker had adjacent patents, and George Utz was a witness to the will of Balthasar (Baltz, or Paul in English) Blankenbaker.
The mystery name, which is probably a mistake in the original or copy, is the appearance of "Georgia" as the wife of Nicholas Yager. Usually, the wives or mothers are not given by name but by their relationship to a male.
It would be a monumental find to have the original Bible record or an original copy.
Still, if the original Bible record were found, it would not solve the mystery in the choice of the sponsors. That will most likely be found in Germany and would clarify relationships among the Yager, Blankenbaker, Moyer (Maier), and Volck families.
(15 Dec 05)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.